Doll&#39;s eyes



Patented Mar. 16, 1943 UNITED' STATES PATENT OFFICE DOLLS EYES CharlesWeltrnan, Brooklyn, N. Y. Application July is, 1941-, Serial No. 403,082

3 Claims. (c1. 46-167 This invention relates to dolls eyes and has for its main object to provide eyes for dollswhich are movable and which are set in a desired position manually from theoutsider i Dolls" eyes which are'automatica-lly and mechanically movable have been used inthis art, and dolls the eyes of which go into the sleeping or closed position when laid flat, and open again when the doll is placed in an upright position, areol'd and well known, but they are automatic in operation and the mechanical construction of them is such that theycannot be applied into dolls headswhich are madeof soft material'and then stuffed.

The main object of this-invention is to provide dolls eyes which are closed fromthe outside by ceeds, and among others I may mention: to provide dolls eyes of the character indicated hereinbefore which will be simple in construction, inexpensive to manufacture, easy to apply and to operate manually from the outside, and, preferably, in which no extra element is needed for manually operating the dolls eyes, but they are operated by a portion thereof, like by the eyelashes.

In the drawing forming a part of this specification and accompanying the same:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a dolls head with the novel eyes of my invention installed therein and shown in an open awake position;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic front elevation of the same dolls head showing one eye in a closed position and the other eye being closed by the player;

Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1 showing the application of the manually operable dolls eye into the dolls head;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of an element to be :ln-v stalled in the dolls head carrying the mechanical construction for the movable eyes;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional elevation on the line 55 of Fig. 4 showing the construction of the moving element for imitating the clos ing and opening of the eye;

Fig. 6 is another fragmentary sectional view to, show a preferred construction of the moving portion ofthe eye; 1

Fig: [indicates a modification in my device whereby both eyes maybe moved together simultaneously', and r Fig. 8" shows-a blank to'be used' for the .construction indicated in Fig; 6.

Referring now to the drawing more in detail by characters. of reference, the. numeral [0 indicates the front portion of a hollow dolls head in general; into which is applied my manually operable eye construction, generally indicated by the numeral H. V

The dolls head is shown. here asv of'that. construction in which a shell [2 is made of layers of appropriate materials, like textile fabrics, pressed to the. shape of the front of the head of the doll .and treated on the outside; with, the necessary paints andcolors. The head isthen stuffed.

According to my inventiomhowever, before stuffing and closing the head, my movable eye device, generally indicated by the numeral II will be secured into the front part of the hollow head, as by the flaps or extensions 13. Said device II has a base plate M of any appropriate material, like cardboard, on which may be secured two elongated metal plates [5, the longitudinal edges thereof being inwardly turned, as at 16, to form guide channels for the sliding plates I! which are the members shaped to imitate the appearance of the dolls eyes.

Each of said sliding plate members Il may have a somewhat curved protruding ridge 18 in the center thereof which is provided to imitate the eyelashes. It also has an imitation iris I9 painted thereon below said eyelashes, IS in the color desired for the dolls eye, usually blue. The lower half 20 of the sliding plate Il may be painted White to imitate the white of the eye, while the upper half is colored to imitate the front of the eyelids when they are closed. Base plate M of my movable eye device will be arranged in the hollow head of the doll in such a manner that the eyelashes l8 will protrude to the front of the face of the doll through the eye openings 22.

Normally, the dolls face appears as shown in Fig. 1 with the eyes wide open, that is, the eyelash imitations being pushed upwardly to the upper ends of the eye openings 22. When it is desired to place the dolls eyes intosleeping position, the eyelash imitations l8 may be caught between the thumb and the forefinger of the player and pulled downwardly, as indicated in Fig. 2. Performing this downward pulling operation on both eyes, the doll will appear as asleep, while doing the reverse operation on the dolls eyes, that is, pullin the eyelash imitations l8 upwardly, will cause the plate I! to slide in an upward direction and will expose the lower half 20 of the sliding plate I! through the eye openings 2!! and the iris l9 therein, thereby giving the effect of the eyes being open, as in Fig. 1.

In such a manner, the player, that is, usually a small girl owning thedoll, may put the doll to sleep or to an awake position at her desire at any time without having to place the doll into differ ent positions, as is the case with the present mechanical automatically operating movable dolls eyes.

In Fig. 4 the open position of the eye imitation members is shown with full lines, while the position when the dolls eyes are closed is indicated by the dotted lines.

A preferred method of forming the sliding plat I! with its protruding eyelash imitation I8.is indicated in Figs. 6 and 8. In this form the plate I! and its eyelash imitation l3 are formed of one piece of sheet metal or similar material, which first is cut into the blank Ha shown in Fig. 8. The blank is folded on the three lines 24, 25 and 26, the center portion 21 thereof being doubled and caused to perpendicularly rise from the plane of the blank Ila and thereby form the eyelash imitation l8. In pressin the slide plates H from the blank Ila, they may be somewhat curved as shown in Fig. 5 to better imitate the eyeballs, and the eyelashes l8 may also be curved somewhat downwardly at the two ends, as indicated in Figs.

.1, 2 and 4.

The eyelash imitations l8 may have eyelashes lea secured thereon to make it appear more natural, or they may otherwise be painted and prepared to imitate eyelashes and they may be made of other material than metal or may be coated with rubber to prevent possible injury to the fingers of the child playing with the doll.

In Fig. '7 I indicate in a digrammatical mannor that a rigid member 28 may connect the two sliding plates I1 and with such a construction, the moving of one eye will cause the other eye to move simultaneously and in a similar manner, as will be obvious.

- What I claim as new, is: 1'. In a dolls head, having a, hollow face portion and openings therein for the eyes, a separate base plate secured in said head to the rear of each eye opening and spaced apart from said face, a

slidable element on each base plate having adja- 'tively, a rigid imitation eyelash projecting from each sliding element through the eye opening to the front of the face, said sliding element being adapted to be moved by said eyelash in one or in the other direction to expose the eye imitation through said eye opening in a closed orin an open position, respectively. 1

2. In a dolls head, as set forth in claim 1, said sliding element being adapted to remain inits respective position showing the eye imitation-in a closed or in an open condition permanently until changed. a

3. In a dolls head, as set forth in claim 1, said slidable element being in the form of a plate having a middle portion adapted to be folded doubled in its center and to be raised in its doubled condition perpendicularly to said plate upon a per pendicular bending of its ends in said plate, said perpendicularly rising doubled folded projection in said slidable plate forming said imitation eyelashes. I r 3 CHARLES WELTMAN. 

